Myanmar’s regime has started the process of drafting women for military service by registering Yangon Region females.
In February last year, the junta dusted off the Conscription Law, requiring men aged 18-35 and single women 18-27 to serve in the military for a minimum of two years. The regime has since trained nine batches of male conscripts.
In mid-January the regime started compiling lists of eligible Yangon women, including in Hlaing Tharyar Township, Myanmar’s largest industrial zone where hundreds of thousands of women work in factories.
Other townships included Thanlyin, Kyauktan, Kayan, Thongwa, South Dagon and Dagon Seikkan on the outskirts of Yangon as well as Tamwe, Thaketa, Yankin, Dawbon and Thingangyun.
The junta faces severe troop shortages.
A South Dagon Township resident told The Irrawaddy: “They are compiling lists in my ward. They have divided the ward into six sections and registered 17 women in the second section. I don’t know about other sections. They included my eldest sister but she has already gone abroad. I don’t know what will happen.”
On January 23, the regime updated the Conscription Law, making it compulsory for family members to serve in the military consecutively.
It also blocked those eligible from leaving the country without junta permission.
If someone fails to respond to their call-up, their family must explain their absence and register a substitute.
Article 23 of the law threatens draft dodgers with three years in prison.
The regime previously said it would draft women in the fifth batch but it seems this will happen with the 10th wave of male conscription.
Ma Phoo, a Thaketa Township resident in Yangon, said: “Ward administrators cross-checked our household registration document with the guest list they have, verifying ages and trying to locate our conscription-age family members. They said they were conscripting men but would return in a month for women.”
The junta’s conscription committee chairman and defense minister General Maung Maung Aye on Wednesday said every citizen was responsible for the state’s defense. He called for measures to ensure everyone eligible completes military service.
An official from the regime’s Naypyitaw conscription committee told the media that it was only compiling lists and had no plans for female recruitment.
A mother from Yangon said: “I’m on edge if my daughter returns late from work. How can I hand her to an army of murderers and rapists?”
The junta said 14 million people, or 26 percent of the population, are eligible for military service. The law has prompted an exodus to foreign countries while others have joined anti-regime groups.
The regime has been also abducting healthy men from homes, streets and buses across the country, including in Yangon and Mandalay, to address its troop shortages.
It is forcibly conscripting detained nationals deported for illegally crossing into neighboring Thailand.
